Days Like These
by Seersucker
Summary: Harry and Hermione evaluate their friendship as Harry prepares to propose to Ginny.  HHR
1. Days Like These

A/N: This was started before Deathly Hallows then I forgot about it but I decided to finish it. So the Horcrux hunting doesn't match up to what really happened. Oh well. .

It was another rainy day in Hogsmeade as Harry pressed his forehead against the cool glass of his window pane. He watched all the witches and wizards scurrying about from store to store, casting water resistance spells on their clothes. He had returned from another long trip to Bulgaria where some dragon poachers were apprehended. He was worn out from the long distance apparation and was enjoying the lazy Tuesday afternoon. He was free to sulk without the prying, good-natured inquiries of his friends. Sometimes, he would get this way, quietly brooding. They he was remembering the pain and horrors of the final battle, but that didn't bother him too much anymore. No, it was for a different reason altogether that made him particularly pensive on rainy days like these.

After they had defeated Voldemort they returned to Hogwarts to finish out their final year, much to Ron's dismay. After the war ended, he and Ginny, naturally got back together, and it was just as good as it had been before, perhaps even better. He felt like himself again, he felt happy. After the trio finished school Harry went off to Auror training, Ron started Quidditch training, and Hermione took over as Charms teacher at Hogwarts. They saw each other a lot less, now that their schedules were so conflicted. While Harry enjoyed his life with his fiery redhead, Ron and Hermione had started their own relationship.

On any other day ask Harry Potter how he felt about Ginny and he would say he was over the moon in love with her. And he did love her. But it was these, particularly rainy, particularly mucky days, which made him doubt if that was enough. Rainy days always made him think of Hermione. It was as if his brain had created a memory montage of select Hermione moments. Perhaps it was always because the most prominent moments between Harry and her seemed to happen on rainy days.

"Harry, Harry you're hurt." He jerked his hand away from her angrily turning his back on her. "Harry—" he could hear the hurt in her strained voice but his insides were bubbling with anger.

"You agree with him don't you? You think this is a waste of time." He bit his tongue waiting for her answer, hoping he was wrong. The soft spatter of the rain bouncing off the window was the only audible sound. He knew she was carefully mapping out an answer, intelligently designing a truthful, yet non-threatening reply. "Don't bother Hermione, I know how you feel." He dejectedly opened his bedside table and dropped in the unharmed locket.

"Do you Harry?" he was almost startled at her shrill voice, he was sure she would have left already. "Because I'm sure that you don't. Did I expect we'd have more to go on than a couple of dead end trails and half baked ideas? Yes I did, but I knew, I knew we wouldn't have much."

"Then why did you come?" He asked bitterly, still glaring at the gleaming locket.

"The same reason why I've broken over three dozen school rules: Because you needed me to." Harry dug the heels of his hands into his eyes.

"_Need_."

"What?" she asked slightly puzzled.

"You said 'needed'. That's past tense." He could picture her behind him, mouth slightly agape, the know-it-all being given a dose of her own medicine. "You may not need me anymore Hermione, but I still need you. I need you to believe that…" he paused, lost for words. He felt the bed sag to the newly added weight. She placed a soft hand on his shoulder that made him turn around to look at her.

"I do need you, Harry." She looked at him earnestly and for a second he felt something like fear shoot through him. It made his toes curl and his stomach clench, but it was gone in a breath. "We all need you." She said lightly.

Harry pressed his forehead to the cool glass. Right now Hermione was probably teaching some group of third years how to perform a drying charm. Ron was on his way to Romania with the rest of the Puddlemere United team. Ginny would most-likely have a late night at St. Mungos, attending to the many scraped up wizards that had slipped on puddles.

He traced the racing water drops down the pane willing his memories to stop. It would only make things worse.

He grabbed her wrist forcefully, causing her to fall backward out of her chair. He sat up in his bed.

"Oh, Hermione, I'm sorry I thought you were –" she quickly scampered to her feet waving the air dismissively.

"I shouldn't have frightened you like that." Even in the pale, blue moonlight he could tell she was blushing. He pushed the covers off of himself. She wiped her hand on her jeans. "Your forehead's sweaty."

"It is?" Then he noticed the distinct feeling of chilled sweat in the soft breeze. "How'd you know?" Again she looked awkwardly flustered.

"Well, I sort of brushed the hair off your forehead." He ruefully smiled at the thought of Hermione sitting at his beside, brushing hair off his forehead while he slept. "You were… um… restless." He immediately knew she meant he had been calling out in his sleep. He nodded understandingly. "Did Ron wake?"

"If he can sleep through his own snores…" he laughed slightly for a moment.

"It's almost time for my watch anyway." Rain pounded atop the canvas ceiling of the tent.

"Wait Harry!" she grabbed his arm and even in the dim light he could tell she wanted to ask him something. Something important, but she wouldn't dare approach the subject. It didn't matter; he already knew what she wanted to ask. He often had dreams about his two best friends being tortured or killed because of him. He knew he must call out their names once in awhile, but that didn't mean he wanted to talk about it face to face with them. "Nevermind."

She let his arm slip through her grip. He kissed her forehead lightly.

"Sleep well Hermione."

He was soaked. Soaked, cold, and bitterly exhausted. They had won, they actually had won. He was greeted by the cheering crowds of old friends, old students, and complete strangers. Everybody reached out to pat him on the back, shake his hand, or simply _touch_ the defeater of the dark lord, but he wasn't paying any attention because off in the distance of the crowd, standing near Hagrid, stood his two best friends. He slowly made his way through the waves of celebrators towards them. They were facing him, the same exhausted smile he had mirrored back at him. There was such a commotion he could barely think.

He was enveloped in a slow, and careful group hug. He could feel a couple of bruised ribs. They stood there together, the three of them simply hugging.

"It's over." Harry finally breathed. He felt Hermione nod.

"Alright Hermione, it's not really normal for guys to hug each other for this long." Ron mumbled under his breath. They would have laughed if not for the circumstances. Hermione let go of them both. Suddenly, Harry was knocked forward by two arms snaking around him from his back. He winced slightly before a crop of red hair shifted in front of him.

"You did it Harry. You did it!" He smiled lazily and hugged Ginny loosely. Harry looked over Ginny's shoulder and his eyes traveled down to Ron and Hermione's joined hands.

"Ginny, mum's been looking everywhere for you!" Ginny broke the hug and turned a pointed look to Ron. Ron took her hand, letting go of Hermione's. "Come on, just for a few minutes." The two red heads disappeared into the ocean of people.

The cheers had become a dull roar in the background as sleep became the first order of business. He walked two steps closer to Hermione. She smiled nervously at his expression.

"Harry you were so great out there. I'm just so sorry you had to go through this –umpf!" He didn't know what made him do it, but he had snaked his arm around Hermione's back and simply kissed her. At first she had tensed up, but after a half a second, she gave in, kissing him back. It was one of those victory kisses, like when the men come home from war, but there was something more to it. Her lips were warm and welcoming. His body seemed to tingle with new-found energy. She threw her arms around his neck. Somewhere in the back of his head, he knew this would never happen again, so he had to make it good. He urgently pushed his lips against hers further, savoring the feel of them, the shape of them, the taste of them. Somehow, kissing Hermione felt good, _really_ good.

All these thoughts happened within the three second extent of the kiss they shared. They broke apart blushing at their very public kiss, catcalls being made by the closest to the two friends, but as Harry looked around at the crowd, he saw many people kissing each other. It was a celebration. Kissing Hermione was okay. It was a _celebration_.

Soon Fred and George's fireworks were exploding in the air overhead. He felt her small hand slip into his.

"Let's find Ginny and Ron." She murmured over the roar of the fireworks. As he followed her through the crowd it felt like his heart was breaking. He didn't understand. He loved Ginny.

He rubbed his heart as if he could soothe the ache. That was the night he would later realize he loved Hermione, but they couldn't be together. She loved Ron, and Harry loved Ginny. Deep down, he knew Hermione loved him too. It would be in a touch on his arm, or the concerned look in her eyes whenever he talked about his job. It was the way she fussed over him when he was in St. Mungos, _again_.

And she knew he loved her, he hoped. It was shown by the way he would bend over backwards not to break a lunch date with her. By the way he would know how to make her feel better after a bad day. By all the touches, kisses, and words that couldn't happen.

Even though there was this unspoken _thing_ between them, he knew nothing would ever happen. They were too faithful, too loyal to do anything about it. The last thing they would do was hurt their friends, their significant others, even if that meant hurting themselves sometimes.

His breath fogged up the window. Loving her had become so natural to him. It was fact. He knew tomorrow would be different. Tomorrow he would take Ginny to her favorite restaurant and tomorrow Ginny would become his fiancé. But tonight, his memories were filled with the smell of her, the feel of her, just her. Tonight his hands itched just to touch her again. His heart ached for one more look. Tonight he looked out the window, and wondered if somewhere out there, Hermione was looking up at the same rain clouds he was. And somehow, he knew she was.

A/N: Super short, I know. I was thinking of doing Hermione's point of view for another chapter, but I'm not sure. We'll see after the feedback, which you should definitely give. Thanks for reading.


	2. Nights Like These

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as the final bell rang.

"All right, quills down." She moved down the rows collecting rolls of parchment from the grumbling students. "Well, class dismissed." The students all collected their things and headed out the door. "Have a good night!" she called after them as a last thought. She shuffled the paper into a pile on her desk and began grading them immediately.

"_Ennervate_? No, that's not right," she absently said to herself while grading. She continued to grade three more tests. It was stuffy in her room and she had been restless all day.

She moved to the window to let in the breeze. As the room filled with the fresh scent of clean air she suddenly realized the cause of her nervousness today. It was Wednesday. Tonight Harry was proposing to Ginny. She looked out across Hogwarts' grounds. The sky was still gray above, still threatening a thunderstorm. Across the way sat Hagrid's hut, billowing smoke into the sky. She rested her hands on the sill for a moment. _This is really happening_…

* * *

"I picked it up at the Goblin jewelry shop last night. What do you think?" He held the perfectly sized, perfectly glittering, perfectly right engagement ring. She took it lightly from his hand and examined the sparkling diamond. The ring was truly breathtaking.

"I'd say yes because of the ring alone." She slipped out still examining it carefully. Harry chuckled.

"Well I hope that's not the only reason she says yes." She blushed slightly.

"Of course not, Harry! Any girl would be lucky to have a catch like you." She said handing the ring back to him. "It really is a beautiful ring." He put it back in his pocket, almost sighing.

"I thought it was time. Five years is a long time to be dating." She nodded her agreement as she took a sip of her lukewarm tea. They sat there in silence for a moment and she felt her cheeks get red under his gaze.

"So, when are you going to ask her?" he stirred his tea absentmindedly.

"I was thinking next Wednesday, it will have given me enough time to return from Bulgaria."

"You're being sent to Bulgaria again?" she quirked up her eyebrows in surprise.

"There are always bad guys to be caught." She took another sip of her tea and wrinkled her nose at the cold temperature. Before she could do anything about it Harry had cast a warming charm on her cup.

"Thanks."

"So, what do you think about Ginny and me getting engaged?" He tried to ask as casually as he could. She pondered her words carefully.

"Five years is a while to be dating, and you've always wanted a family." She paused. Why was it so hard to say? She broke eye contact with the intense emerald and stared into the clouded depths of her teacup. "I'm, I'm really happy for you, Harry." He sat back in his chair; she hadn't realized he had been leaning forward. He smiled and nodded his head.

"Yeah, it's time isn't it?" he smiled taking another sip of his tea, the smile never leaving his lips.

* * *

She moved back to her desk and bit the tip of her quill pensively. The papers in front of her were forgotten. She looked over at the picture of Ron and her. It had been taken on New Years. They were smiling and laughing and every so often Ron would lean in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

She smiled a sad little smile, the kind she always smiled when she thought of _him_ when she should be thinking about Ron.

* * *

"Harry," she breathed. He was sitting on a fallen log. She could hear thunder grumbling in the distance. "Where have you been? Why did you leave the tent? I was worried." He remained stoic, not even flinching to acknowledge her presence. "Harry?" she slowly walked to his side as if approaching a blast-ended skrewt. She sat down next to him and studied his profile.

His raven black hair hung loosely in his face, the faint lightening bolt scar peaking through. His head was bent, his eyes fixed on something shinning and metal in his hands.

"What wrong?" he opened the locket before closing it again and turning it over in his hands.

"I'm just thinking." She paused, wondering if she should press on or just leave him be, but there was something about Harry that always made her want to know more. It was always like he had one more thing to say, always one last thought that he never let out. If Harry were a book she would read him cover to cover until she had memorized every line, every look, every sound of him. But reading Harry was about as easy as reading one of those screaming volumes from the restricted section.

"About what?" she heard herself ask before she could keep the words in. He sat there silently for a few moments and she was sure he wasn't going to answer.

"What if we can't get them all? What if he finds me before we're done? I wish people would stop treating me like I have some special power, like I know what I'm doing."

She had never heard him be this vocal, this honest. Often she would lay awake, hearing him shuffling around in the next room, wondering what kind of pressure he was under. She opened her mouth, thought twice, and closed it again. She picked up her hand and placed it on his shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze. He seemed to take comfort in this small action and she relaxed a bit.

"We'll get through this. I know we will." He looked up at her sharply—angrily.

"How? How can you say that? You don't know that. Don't lie, Hermione." His eyes bore into her and she refused to look away.

"Because I believe in you Harry, even if you don't." she said pointedly. Standing up and marching back to the tent. She could hear the faint beginnings of raindrops splattering the roof. He still hadn't come back.

* * *

She sighed again, collecting the tests and various other piles of paper she shuffled them into her briefcase. Her heels clicked through the silent halls of Hogwarts as everyone was in the Great Hall enjoying the evening feast. She quickly made her way to her quarters. Dropping the briefcase by the door she took off her robes and dropped down on her bed. She was seventeen again.

* * *

She was knocked on her back by a powerful curse. The hooded figure loomed over her, but before the shrouded Death Eater could finish her off Ron jinxed him with a body-binding curse. He helped her up and she smiled her thanks. Faintly she felt the warm, sticky trickle of blood down her neck. As soon as Ron had appeared he was gone again, amongst the many dueling figures. She saw an orange flash out of the corner of her eye as Luna Lovegood crumbled to the ground. She ran towards the Death Eater throwing any hex or jinx she could think of. Once the Death Eater was stunned she rushed to Luna's aid.

"Is she alright?" Harry's whisper tickled the back of her neck, or maybe that was the blood.

"I think, I don't know what hit her." She turned around but Harry wasn't there. The invisibility cloak. "You're going after him aren't you?"

"I have to." She turned back to Luna, the radish earring dangling precariously from her ear.

"Not alone." She said defiantly. She thought she felt lips press the top of her head lightly, but she wasn't sure.

"Be careful." He whispered in her ear. She knew he was gone. She could no longer feel his presence.

"Harry!" she called out feebly. Ron met her gaze across the room. His look mirroring hers—helplessness. _This is really happening_…

* * *

"Miss Granger?" she heard the familiar call of Dobby through the door. She sighed, opening the door. She mustered a smile for him as he held up a tray of pumpkin juice, chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, and pumpkin pie.

"Oh Dobby, you didn't have to…" Dobby shook his head vehemently.

"Mr. Harry Potter told Dobby to watch over Miss Granger, and Miss Granger was not at the feast tonight." She smiled the same sad smile.

"Well thank you very much Dobby." He turned to leave.

"Oh and Dobby, thank you very much for the socks." She lifted her pants to reveal a blue sock with books on it and a green one with cats. "I love them." The little elves eyes shone with tears of happiness.

"Thank you very much Miss Granger!" She closed the door, placing the tray on her desk, not really interested in eating tonight. The clock chimed seven and Hermione imagined Harry was probably pouring another glass of champagne for Ginny, toasting to them. She shut her eyes tightly, digging the heels of her hand into her eyes. Lightening flashed outside her window as rain beat against the panes.

She was fine, really, most days she was perfectly happy with her life. It's not like she was a bad girlfriend to Ron. She _loved_ him. It was only those infuriating moments when she would detect a particular scent that she associated with Harry in which these memories, these feelings, would come flooding back to her. Harry always smelled like the crisp, clean air after a rain shower.

She knew it was awful, and she always felt awful after she had been fully pulled out of her reverie. He was happy with Ginny, and she was happy with Ron, and that was the truth. But days like these always brought a "what if" quality with them. She wasn't dumb. She knew she had feelings for Harry and she was pretty sure he harbored feelings for her. She could tell by the way he always made time for her, by the way he would make up reasons to write or talk to her. She was sure he could see through her façade. She was always checking up on him, and she often let herself touch him too much when they did see each other. It was just so _hard_ sometimes.

They would never, ever, do anything to hurt the Weasleys and it was an unspoken agreement. They could be happy without each other, as soon as they gave up that "what if", as soon as they moved on. However, she had been trying to "move on" for the past five years.

It just seemed so final. This was the last night she could think about him, guilt-free. Tomorrow he was officially someone else's, but tonight he could be hers. For just a few hours more.

She lit a fire and curled up into her bed, hugging her pillow. Tomorrow the storm will have blown over, Ron would come home, Harry would be engaged, and Hermione could return to normalcy. The feel of his lips against hers haunted her on nights like these. The crackle of the fire seemed to taunt her. She closed her eyes. She loved him.

* * *

The sharp smell of anti bacterial spells burned her nose as her eyes flicked awake.

"Hermione!" Ron jumped to his feet. "You're awake." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She smiled at him.

She saw Harry make his way to the other side of her. He smiled brightly as he looked down at her. "What happened? The last thing I remember is Harry ki- is Harry." Ron brushed a piece of hair away from her face and looked at her adoringly. Harry's smile faltered.

"A rogue Death Eater hit you with a curse while everyone was celebrating. He was aiming for me." Ginny appeared at his side and took his hand, squeezing it gently.

"It's good to see you, Hermione." She said brightly. She then turned to Harry and put her free hand on his bicep. "Don't blame yourself, Harry." His eyes met with Hermione's briefly. His look said it all. If it had been different, if everything had been different… she nearly nodded in understanding. She turned to Ron and smiled brightly at him.

* * *

She turned over and stared out the window, wet with rain. She tried not to imagine Ginny with the sparkling ring on her finger, kissing him passionately as tears of joy slip from her eyes.

_This is really happening…_ Harry is engaged, and you can't bring yourself to do anything about it. You're too selfless, too loyal to ruin Ron and Ginny's happiness. _This is really happening…_ and all you can to is wait until morning when everything will be okay.

* * *

Harry snatched the book out of her hands.

"Harry! Give that back." He laughed as he held it high over his head.

"Workaholic."

"Famous arse."

"Over achiever."

"Under achiever."

"Bookworm." She crossed her arms in front of her in mock offense. She put on her best upset face.

"Heartless git." She sniffed. He laughed lowering the book. "I hate you." She said narrowing her eyes at him.

"Come on Hermione, you know I was kidding. Anyway, you know I love you." It was meant to be teasing and playful, but it came out with all the seriousness that the words truly meant for him. She took the book from his hands.

"I know." She said softly. "Me too."

* * *

Merlin, how she hated nights like these.

A/N: What do you think so far? One more chapter coming. Please review, its been a bad night and I could use some reviews to make me happy. :(


	3. Mornings Like These

Side Note: This isn't a really explicit M so, it's not too raunchy, in my opinion, just steamyhot. But I don't know if this is too much for fanfiction if you think it is just tell me and I'll repost a censored version, and sorry if it is offensive in any way, it was not meant to be.

Ah, and now, on with the third installment…

He stood outside pacing her door. He needed to tell her. She deserved to know.

The early rising students were milling about. Every so often they would pass him and whisper excitedly to each other.

He felt happy, liberated, and nervous as hell. He passed her door for about the hundredth time.

"Bollocks," he muttered.

She woke up to someone pounding on her door rapidly. She groaned pulling a pillow over her head and rolled over.

"Hermione?" she heard a muffled call through her door. She scrunched up her nose. Harry? Then all of last night came flooding back to her. All the pain, all the ache, everything. She threw the covers off of her as if they were made of lead. Guess he wanted to tell her the good news in person. She hated his politeness.

She opened the door and saw the back of Harry's head. He turned around surprised and greeted her with a large smile.

"Good morning." He said cheerfully. She inwardly sighed.

"Come in. Can I make you some tea or anything?" Harry seemed distracted by his happiness.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, tea would be great thanks." She turned her back to him and went to tiny kitchen. As she put the kettle on she nearly jumped out of her skin, Harry was right behind her.

"You look nice today." She gave him a strange look.

"I rolled out of bed." She said tersely. Frankly she was a little upset that Harry had come over to gloat this morning. Maybe she had been all wrong.

The whistling kettle was a nice reprieve from her thoughts of strangling Harry. She poured them two cups of tea and placed them on the table, motioning for him to sit down. She pulled out cream and honey and placed them on the table. She sat across from him, bracing herself for the news.

He took a sip of his tea and placed it down. Smiling brightly. She had never seen him this happy.

"I couldn't go through with it." He said simply, placing the teacup back on the saucer.

"Couldn't go through with what?" Hermione asked absently stirring her tea. He looked at her incredulously.

"The proposal, I couldn't go through with it." Hermione stopped stirring her tea and looked up at him.

"What are you talking about?" He would have laughed had it not been for the strange tone in her voice.

"Hermione, I didn't ask Ginny to marry me. I couldn't do it." He slowed his speech down so she could clearly hear every syllable. She stared at him blankly for a moment. Then, slowly he saw slight realization.

"But, you took her to Hedrick's." He nodded. "You bought her a ring." He nodded once again. "But you… _didn't _propose." Harry wasn't sure if that was a question or not so he simply nodded anyway. She seemed a million miles away, lost in her thoughts.

He couldn't have. He was going to, he told her he was going to. _But he didn't._ Her mind was racing. Why didn't he? Could he possibly, could he possibly have chosen her over Ginny. Could he finally, for once in his life, have been selfish?

"Why?" she asked distantly. His brow furrowed. Didn't she know? All those nights he made himself feel better, simply by telling himself that she did know how much he loved her, had he been lying to himself? Did she really not know how much she meant to him?

"Because I couldn't propose to someone I wasn't in love with."

"Harry," she breathed in realization. It hit her, he wasn't going through with it. He couldn't go through with it, because of _her_. He got up from his chair, moving to kneel down before her.

"Because you can't propose to someone," he brushed a strand of hair out of her face, "when you're in love with someone else." She hiccupped and he laughed just slightly. She always got hiccups when she was nervous.

"And who are you in love with?" she asked him quietly. His brilliant emerald eyes seemed to grow to a dark forest.

"You." He simply said as he captured her mouth in a heated kiss. It was frantic and filled with five years of longing, frustration, passion, lust, and love.

She welcomed him eagerly, opening her mouth as his tongue traced along the seam of her lips. She slowly lifted herself off of her chair, careful not to break the kiss. This was so much more than the previous kiss they shared. The want and need of the first kiss was amplified tenfold as she swore she could feel her heart hammering against her chest, literally trying to reach out to him.

"Harry." She gasped in between kisses. Her head was fuzzy, she couldn't think of much else except the feel of his lips crushed against hers, the taste of his tongue dancing, dueling with her own.

"Mmm?" He had moved to trail kisses down the side of her neck as he slowly pushed her back towards the bedroom. He began unbuttoning her night shirt slowly. She gasped as his tongue flicked over a sensitive spot on her neck. Her hands found their way under his well fitting t-shirt and she was pleasantly surprised to feel the taut muscles, she had so often felt in hugs, skin to skin. He was down to the last buttons on her shirt and he quickly pushed it off her shoulders.

"What about Ginny?" she suddenly remembered. It was more of a reflex to ask than anything else. She was so far away the name sounded only vaguely familiar.

"We're done." He said kissing between the valley of her breasts. His hands fumbled around to her back to unhook her bra. She deftly lifted his t-shirt over his head, knocking off his glasses. Before she could make a move to pick them up, Harry muttered.

"_Accio_ Glasses." They flew back into his hand. Hermione stopped her assault on his neck.

"Harry, you just- without a-" he smiled and popped her bra off. He took her hand leading her to the bed.

"There are a lot of things I can do." He said suggestively with an evil smile. Her hands went to his pants as his thumbs hooked under the elastic band of her sleep pants. They fell onto the bed respectively wearing knickers and boxers. Harry gently pushed her back against the bed as he began to explore her body, showering every inch of skin with kisses.

Merlin, she wanted him, no needed him, so badly. The tension and frustration of five years came flooding back to her, all to build up to this moment.

As he began to move back up to capture her mouth she could feel him pressed against her. The thought alone made her arch into him as they both groaned. Slowly she could feel her knickers making their way down to her ankles. He gave another wicked smile from on top of her before devouring her mouth in another bone-melting kiss. She pushed him off of her as she climbed on top of him.

Their eyes met and she could hear him literally gasp at the sight of her.

"You are the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen." She blushed and dipped down to his chest to begin her exploration of his body. Quidditch and Auror training had done a lot of good for him. She thought ruefully as she placed careful kisses on every inch of newly exposed skin. Finally she began to make her way up his body, removing his boxers. Once there was skin to skin contact he let out a near growl as he took her in his arms and nuzzled into her neck and she couldn't help but think that this felt right.

He positioned himself at her entrance, looking deep into her chocolate eyes as if he were reading her as plain as text.

"I love you." He said quietly. She smiled brightly at him willing herself not to cry.

"I love you too." With that he pushed into her, filling her and stretching her until she finally felt whole. She gasped, and Harry crushed his lips against hers once more, groaning at the feel of her surrounding him.

They moved slow and rhythmically at first, enjoying the feel of skin to skin on every inch. However, soon enough she was bucking her hips, urging him to move quicker and he happily obliged. All the time he was showering her with frantic kisses as if she might disappear. She wrapped her arms around him tighter as she met his thrusts with her own. And soon her eyes were closed as a thousand tiny stars burst against her eyelids. She distantly heard Harry cry out her name as his thrust became slower.

Finally, he collapsed against her, sweaty and tired. It felt good to have the weight on her and she smiled as they both lay there, reveling in the feel of it all. Her hands drew lazy patterns on his back and scratched through his hair and he would make a sound of content every so often accompanied with a kiss dropped on her shoulder.

She didn't know how long they had lain there, at one point they drifted to sleep and she woke up to a pair of brilliant green eyes studying her as intently as she had for her O.W.L.S.

"You're here." She didn't know if it were a question or statement by the way he said it. She nodded and he brushed hair away from her face. "You don't know how many times I've woken up in the morning and-" she smiled knowing exactly what he meant. Even as a grown man he could still be haunted by his dreams. "This," he motioned between them, "this is what I've always wanted." She smiled.

"Me too." Then her eyes fell to the picture sitting next to her bed of the three of them. The color drained from her face. "Oh my gosh." Harry immediately tensed.

"What, what is it?" he asked pulling her protectively closer.

"Ron—" she choked out. "He'll hate me, hate _us_, he'll- he'll-"

"Have to understand." Harry finished sternly.

"But Harry—"

"I'm tired of living my life for everyone else, to make everyone else happy. There's only one person I care about making happy." She smiled and kissed him, loving the idea that she could kiss him anytime she wanted. "Unless, you want to stay together with him." She pulled back but saw that his eyes were very serious. She could fell his muscles tensed all around her. She smiled.

"Don't be ridiculous Harry. I love you. You know I always have." His grip around her tightened.

"I'm sorry about all of this, it's just when the war was over everything was such a mess. Ron was going on and on about how when you woke up he was finally going to ask you out and Ginny was already proclaiming herself as my girlfriend again. I thought it was for the best." She smiled lazily and kissed his neck, finding the extremely sensitive spot behind his ear. "Hermione." His voice was husky and laced with desire. She could already feel him getting turned on.

"Harry, the second we leave this bed we're going to have one massive headache of a problem to deal with. Let's just make the best of this right now?" He smiled and rolled on top of her again.

"Let's never leave the bed." he raised his eyebrows suggestively before nibbling on her collar bone. She gasped.

"Now _that_, is a fantastic idea."

Merlin, how she was going to enjoy mornings like these.

A/N: This story has been such a headache blah! Once again sorry for the confusion. This is my first shot at writing NC-17/Rish stuff so any criticism/comments would be welcome. I didn't think this story would be NC-17 but I realized with all the build up I should probably give a worth-while ending. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Reviewing is always welcome…. Last chance…


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